SunQuest Solar Pool Heater Panel - 2ft x 20ft Solar Water Heater for Above Ground Pools with Hose Adapters | DIY Polypropylene UV-Resistant Collector | Perfect for Backyard Swimming Pools, Spas & Inflatable Pools

Hard to rate a product but I say like 3 to 4 stars on the kit I ordered.The base kit used for an above ground pool would receive 5 stars from me. You can use all the supplied connectors and i can see nothing leaking. Just roll the mat out on a sunny day and it will flatten. connect it up to a flexible 1-1/2" flexible hose and your done.The problems start when you start mounting it more permanent like to a roof (I bought the complete kit with roof mounts/strapping). The instructions say to mount at certain measurements and that's just not correct. You must find the roof studs and lag bolt directly into them. It's almost common sense. You locate the stud, pre-drill, inject some roofing sealant into the hole and bolt it down. All your doing is just lag bolting a plastic coated metal strap on the roof. No leak proof mounts or anything like that you would see in a more expensive kit. I feel like for the cost, they should included a little plastic mount that will grab and allow sealant to be used more effectively. what can a couple dozen little plastic pieces cost? Make the kit another 50 bucks more expensive and give the customer a feel good install. This would also allow for removal in the winter. The way their install is, it's permanent. I also put a dab of sealant on top and spread the sealant all around the bolt head. On completion you realize you have just made dozens of holes in your roof that you hope won't leak. Piping is next. Your going to want to use standard PVC. The threaded PVC connector from home depot do not mate up well with the kits threading. The kits threading is off spec. You can get it to not leak but it's nerve wrecking putting the correct amount of thread tape on and not over tightening the connection breaking the already mounted plastic solar panel. It's a fine line. Other then that, 3 PVC valves and some standard schedule 40 PVC piping and your done. Oh and don't do any PVC glueing until after you have the panels mounted and the threaded in PVC connects have been on a warm roof for 3 to 4 hours. the black solar panel will warm and the PVC connector will need to be threaded in a little further due to heat expansion.Instantly when you turn it on, you can feel the warmth. It's ranged about 2-8 degrees warmer and I'm slightly undersized at 4 panels for a 16'x32' pool. If you don't go with an automated valve, your going to want to bypass the system at night turning the 3 valves otherwise the pool will cool its self after dusk.All and all, it's worth the money. I was installing it on an exterior stand alone garage that doesn't get heated over the winter. I can see the panels leaking every now and then, and lasting 5 years or so, but time will tell. for less then a 1/4 of the cost over name brand panels, i'll roll the dice. If I was to do this again, especially on my home, I would have waited till I sourced some little mount pieces for the strapping. The way the kit wants you to mount seems like a leak waiting to happen.I purchased the 2' x 12' with Diverter Kit. I have a 24' round 48" pool. I installed these in early May 2022. I finished installing the solar heater panels at 3:00 on a Tuesday. The water was 68 degrees when I started and 74 by the time the sun went down. The evening of the following day, we were swimming in 80 degree water! I will say that we had some early very warm, very bright sunny days, but I have had a pool for over 20 years, and never seen anything like this outside of geothermal or gas units that cost $1200/month to run.I followed the instructions about only running through the solar panels during the sunny hours of the day. I also use liquid solar blanket/anti evaporation stuff that you can buy on Amazon for $25 for 32 oz to help maintain as much heat as possible overnight. I laid mine flat on the ground in a landscape bed to prevent mowing type of incidents. It took some planning and an additional $70 worth of hoses for a setup like mine, but we were swimming three days after taking the cover off in early May! That is amazing performance.If I have issues, I will update, but so far, these are fantastic. I did have one poorly threaded female connection but I was able to bypass it by choosing it as one of the panel-to-panel connector fittings, so I'd suggest dry fitting all of your connections before committing to installation.Installed the system on the ground next to a 12ft Intex pool ~2000gallons. Temp went from 71 to 86 in one sunny Maryland day, this works well. Planning on installing a real pool next year and certainly will be doing the roof mount system then with 6 more of these panelsThese were clearly made to be layed on the ground. The only real problem I had, was the dimensions listed are misleading. When you include the end tubes, more that 2' is needed for the width. The same thing with the length, the end tubes make the length more than 10'.Not sure if anyone else has had a similar situation as myself. I purchased these panels in early 2021 and I was pleased with them overall. I found them very easy to install without any leaks and the flow through was good as well. That was year one. I live in Ca and the temperature is fairly moderate in the winter, so I don’t take a whole lot of steps to winterize it. I just drain completely and close the valves on both ends to eliminate any water to enter during the winter months. This year I open the valves, panels work just as well as last year. That is until a month into the summer it begins to leak, not massively but noticeable. Then another and another in different panels, but the exact same location on each panel. There are large tubes on either end of the panels. These carry the water to and from the panels. Attached to each tube are the small channels the water flows through and warms before returning to the pool. The point where those channels are connected to the larger tubes on either end is where these small pin size holes form. I have 4 panels and each has several holes. What makes this even worse is that this area is non-repairable. So, unless I get a replacement or refund then I’m out close to $500 for what amounts to less than a year and a half of solar warming. I purchased panels on 2 separate occasions and the same condition exists on all of them. Whatever method they use to join these two sections (adhesives or heat or whatever) is defective. I went on the roof just today, discovered this and immediately wanted to make anyone considering this product aware of the potential failures they might face in the future should they decide to go forward with the purchase of this product.I actually bought this not expecting a lot because I seen mixed reviews I live in Canada and it’s May right now I’ve been using the heater for about a two weeks and as long as the sun is out the heater works great!!! Without this heater the pool was around 16° with the heater The pool sits at 22° I also do have an insulated cover that I put on every night that really helps the pool keep its heat . My pool is 12x30 for reference.We have an 18 foot pool that holds roughly 6800 gallons of water which was 10 degrees celsius at first fill, I installed this kit, a solar tarp, and a intex tarp and we're sitting just below 30 degrees 'C now. The draw back is not all the parts are included and it takes a little enginuity to get it hooked to the pool. Utilize the bypass at night and allow water to heat up in the morning before turning it on, the solar heared water is far to hot to touch when it enters the pool. Do yourself a favor stop paying heating bills and let the sun do it for free. Tip for sand filter pump users I find it's better if you run your filtration cycle in bypass mode and run the system in recirculate to limit back pressure.We installed the solar panel onto our roof after buying the kit needed as well as extra piping to connect to the pump. We were worried that our little pump may not have the strength to pump up to the roof and back down again. We were wrong (thankfully), as it works perfectly. We have an above ground pool (approximately 22" round) and 4' deep. We opened the valve and it had turned the warmth of the pool from 62 to 68, we had rain the next hot day and then another hot day after. By then, the pool had gone up to 72! We were stunned and extremely happy. I wish that we would of bought this 10 years ago (living in Canada, some years we're lucky to have a full week of swimming due to temperature fluctuations). I can't wait to see how much warmer it continues to grow with the heat of the sun. I love this product, definitely recommend it. We unplug the pump at night as we're not sure if running it all evening would just encourage the cool water from the night to bring down the temperature of the pool. Very happy with this product.This works a little too well. The kids love the warm water. Me too, but I miss that exhilarating refreshment of jumping into cold water on a hot day.The product itself doesn't come with any hoses, so be prepared to purchase additional hoses, and for that I'm taking off two stars.Other than that, the solar heater works pretty good, warms up the pool by around 2pm if the sun is out all day. Perfect for kids.I definitely recommend itHad to buy a few couplers to mate with my intex pool filter but well worth it. Make sure to buy the diverter kit. Costs more to buy all the pieces individually. Makes the system way more efficient. Putting the solar blanket on at night and during those cooler rainy days helps as well.